Musical sounds produced by percussion instruments are initiated by forcibly striking a sounding member. The sounding member may be either of two basic types: a membrane, under tension, which can be associated with a hollow cavity capable of influencing the frequency of vibration, as in a drum; or a rigid bar vibrating transversely, whose frequency is affected only slightly by any resonator that may be attached, as in a xylophone.
In many of the percussion instruments, the sounding member is struck by a beater, e.g., a drumstick, adapted to be held in the hand of a musician. Foot-operated beaters have been developed for various types of percussion instruments, so that the musician's hands are free to simultaneously play another instrument.
These foot-operated beaters are most commonly used with drums, especially bass drums. Conventional foot-operated drum beaters have a foot pedal mounted for pivotable movement about a pivot axis on a base member. Depression of the foot pedal actuates a drumstick which pivots about another pivot axis on the base member and strikes an adjacent drum head. Because the drum and beater must be positioned near the musician, they sometimes interfere with his playing of other instruments, due mainly to the size of the drum.
In the past, this particular problem has been overcome by locating the foot pedal remote from a beater assembly. Locating the foot pedal remote from the beater assembly is disadvantageous for at least two reasons. First, a complicated and costly assembly for connecting the foot pedal to the beater assembly must be provided. Second, because standard-sized drums are used in combination with the remotely operated drum beaters, a large amount of space is taken up by the drum and beater combination, thereby restricting the movement of the musician and limiting the space for other instruments and related equipment, such as amplifiers.